So maybe, to extend the running metaphor, it’s the 4×400-meter relay of code funding? OpenNews chief Dan Sinker just announced that they’ll be offering what they’re calling Code Sprint Grants for newsdev projects that will take somewhere between a few weeks and a few months. (Those fall in between the single-weekend hackathons and the year-long fellowships OpenNews currently sponsors.)

The examples cited include Tabletop.js (a tool for accessing Google Spreadsheets via JavaScript) and Timelinesetter (which makes timelines, just like it says on the tin). Dan:

We see Code Sprint Grants as funding small-scale tools and utilities that are focused on solving real needs of news organizations. By collaborating with news orgs to define problems and help move toward solutions, Code Sprint Grants are a way to get code written that helps to solve specific, repeatable — and real — journalistic problems.

The grants are for $10,000 and designed to be driven by news organizations, which will be project leads, although the developers will be paid by OpenNews. No deadline to apply; they’ll look at apps on a rolling basis through year’s end.